Backcountry Death Stats

[Aldaron]

In 2010 I collected a bunch of stats on how people died in the backcountry in an effort to identify the most common cause of death.

The results supported what I had always heard: falling is the most common cause.

Well, now I have it in my head that I would like to collect the stats again, in an effort to gather more details about how people die in the backcountry. And since it's the beginning of the year, it's the perfect time to start.

But I'd like to learn from what I did in 2010 and make the information more useful and more complete.

To that end, I wanted to see if we could start a thread where people could post links to stories about backcountry deaths to help me collect the data.

]So, could we make this the thread where we post links about backcountry deaths?

And is there any specific information people would like to see collected? I thought about collecting info on people injured in the backcountry, but there's just no way to make that information complete, because most injuries are never reported in the media.

 

[Duke]

I would love to see a good database but cannot think of anything specific to cover beyond the Ws except the real one......the one you can't get which is "rate the person's intelligence from 1 to 10" and I don't think it would always be at the bottom.

 

[Nick]

I like this plan.

 

[Aldaron]

I've added a lot of fields to my spreadsheet from 2010, and I've set up a lot more Google News searches that have a good chance of catching most everything that makes the news. And it's been my experiences that deaths typically make at least the local news.

Here is the info I'm going to collect:

Date
Month
State
# of People
How
Park/Forest
Trail
Names
Link to Story
Home of Victims
Animal
Days Lost

Some of those things have specific goals: the month helps tell me the deadliest month, the Park/Forest tells me the deadliest forest, and the state tells me the deadliest state. The month will likely be worse based on when more people are outside (summer), and the park will likely be based on the most popular park. But who knows? So it will be interesting to see. And I want to track the names because the last time I didn't collect the names or the stories, so I couldn't easily double-check on people who had been recorded as "lost" to see if they were ever found. So I want to be able to check later on the "lost" people because "lost" is not really a cause of death.

Anything else that anyone would be interested in knowing?

 

[Dave]

I'd change "how" to "cause". It might also be interesting to note when weather-related factors are involved.

 

[Aldaron]

These are the causes I listed in 2010. Is there another way you think I should list them?

Falls
Lost
Drowning
Natural Causes (Other than Heart Attack)
Avalanche
Unknown
Heart Attack
Hypothermia
Lightning
Rock Slide
Mud Slide
Suicide
Bear Attack
Falling Tree
Altitude Sickness
Falling Rock
Heat Stroke
Animal Attack

Looking at it now, I think I'd like to have specific natural causes if the info is available. And I'd like to eliminate the Lost category altogether and replace it with the actual cause of death, with a caveat if the person was alone. Or maybe just a caveat to denote "lost" if the person was found away from his or her intended route, in addition to the actual cause of death.

Should I separate out falling deaths by rock climbers from other falling deaths?

I also want to try harder to eliminate the "unknown" category. While the "Lost" category was for people who just disappeared, the "Unknown" category was for people who were alone but when they were found the cause of death wasn't known or reported. I'm hoping to get rid of both of those categories.

Anything else I should change on the causes?

 

[DAA]

Most of the things I have seen, which did not end in fatality, but some of them very near, would have involved multiple choices from the list above. Like, the last person I found near death, a backpacker in The Needles, had got sick, then disoriented, then badly dehydrated, and was a few hours away from dying from plain old exposure when we found him. Actually, we thought he was dead when we found him, until he moved.

Another example, a father and son, their small boat had capsized and they had washed ashore, just after dark, with a blizzard blowing, on the wrong bank (an island, nowhere to walk to). We were literally the only boat still out on all of Strawberry reservoir when I happened to see them in the dark. They had only been ashore for 30 minutes and were already so far gone with cold they weren't even able to wave at us or anything, I just saw them there. But, they'd have froze to death for sure that night, but the boat accident is what put them in that position.

Trying to remember, but I think all of the actual fatalities I have seen were vehicle accidents. I don't see anything on your list for accidents. Or are you not interested in counting those, not "back country" enough?

Another one, sheepherder came up to my camp one night, bleeding to death, been in a disagreement with another sheepherder. Got him into Vernal and I think he probably lived, although I never heard or followed up. Nothing on your list for "lost a knife fight"

- DAA

 

[Aldaron]

Those are good points. I'd like to be able to track any other contributing factors. Maybe I can just add additional "cause" columns for certain incidents. I also have a "Notes" section to record any relevant info.

As for vehicle accidents, no, I'm not recording those. In 2010 I started out recording "Frontcountry" deaths, but they were just so numerous and I eventually realized they were no different than most deaths in the city, that it wasn't worth collecting the data. This is how I described it before:

"I decided that any death that did not occur on a road or a parking lot would be a backcountry death. I read about several deaths that occurred just a few hundred yards down a trail, and I debated whether or not those should be considered backcountry deaths or not. In each case, however, the person died because they had been in the backcountry and had been unable to return to the trailhead. I decided that, for those people, the wilderness near the trailhead was just as wild as the wilderness 10 miles from the trailhead, so I elected to include them in the backcountry statistics."

I realize that this can exclude people who get lost while driving out in the backcountry, but I had to draw the line somewhere. If I read about someone who dies while really stuck or lost in their car out in the middle of nowhere, maybe I should include it, though. It would just be a subjective decision on what is "in the middle of nowhere." Like, I probably wouldn't include someone rolling their Jeep in Moab, but I would include someone getting stuck in a snow drift on a dirt road.

And as for the causes, this isn't a pre-determined list. This is just the list of causes that popped up from 2010. I'll use whatever causes I see in the media reports. So, yeah, "lost a knife fight" could certainly pop up on the list. Although, I'd probably list it as homicide.

Thanks!

 

[Aldaron]

I'm going to wear myself out...three backcountry deaths on the first day of the year.

 

[baltocharlie]

Here's a link for 14ers forum that does something similar. You should be able to get some info from them.
http://www.14ers.com/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=28
And Rockcliming.com has plenty.
http://www.rockclimbing.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?forum=78;

Is this what you want??

 

[Aldaron]

I want to be careful about making sure this endeavor doesn't become morbid or insensitive. It's always important to me to keep in mind that the stats represent real people with loved ones and a lost future. And it's important to always keep in mind that these things could happen to me on almost any weekend of the year when I'm in the backcountry. I want to gather the info so that novices and experienced backcountry users alike can be more aware of the real risks that they may face when they leave the pavement.

I hope it comes across that way.

 

[Artemus]

Anything else that anyone would be interested in knowing?

Maybe whether SAR was involved and whether the person had a rescue device for cell phone with them?

 

[Artemus]

I'm going to wear myself out...three backcountry deaths on the first day of the year.

???

I've been out of town....

 

[Aldaron]

In January 2010 I recorded two backcountry deaths. This year I have 11 for January.

Anyone want to guess what the number one cause has been so far?

 

[Unimog]

Avalanche?

 

[baltocharlie]

In January 2010 I recorded two backcountry deaths. This year I have 11 for January.

Anyone want to guess what the number one cause has been so far?

Climbing??

 

[Aldaron]

Climbing??

No...it's still just regular old falling...and only one of the six falls so far was a climber. Another one was a base jumper, but four of the six falls have just been regular hikers.

 

[Aldaron]

Avalanche?

That's a good guess for the winter, but there have only been two avalanche deaths so far this year.

 

[Unimog]

That's a good guess for the winter, but there have only been two avalanche deaths so far this year.

Let's be careful of falling, then! BTW, they show 3 fatalities over on avalanche.org. Maybe you are missing one?

 

[Aldaron]

Let's be careful of falling, then! BTW, they show 3 fatalities over on avalanche.org. Maybe you are missing one?

I counted that Lewis Peak one listed on their page as a fall.

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20140120/NEWS01/140129896/Mukilteo-climber-dies-on-Lewis-Peak

To me, it sounds like his fall triggered the avalanche, rather than the avalanche triggered his fall. That's why I listed it as a fall. He's also the one climber I have listed.

Thanks for that link...I'll add that to the places I watch!